Why is "prune" laughable?

[odilonredon]

Hi there

I was reading an article about food, and there's an short paragraph about prunes.

"He even loved prunes. No one loves prunes. In the English language, there are just a handful of words that come with their own built-in
laugh track, and prune is one of them. He didn’t care."

I don't understand what's so funny about prunes. Is it a pun or something?
Please help me.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Jill Dorchester]

Prunes have a reputation for being Nature's laxative. Older people eat them to keep themselves "regular". Really wrinkly old people are described as "prune-faced." So over the years prunes have been the butt of many jokes, despite being a healthy fruit. In fact, the California Prune Board once launched an advertising campaign to try and reverse public opinion about prunes, to give prunes a new image, so to speak.

 

[MikeNewYork]

In your first sentence, "an" before "short" should be "a".

 

[BobK]

By the way odilonredon, are you sure you have the right meaning for 'prune'. In French une prune is a plum.

b

 

[emsr2d2]

Where did French come into it? (I can see your point - I would find plums funnier than prunes!)

 

[MikeNewYork]

Prunes ARE plums, or at least they used to be. :-D

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Precisely. And in French 'une prune' is a plum and 'un pruneau' is a prune. They don't really make anyone laugh much here.

 

[emsr2d2]

Well, no, they wouldn't make anyone laugh there. The reason "plums" makes people laugh in the UK is that the word is used as a euphemism for testicles.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I don't find either of them funny.

 

[emsr2d2]

Is it not used the same way in AmE?

 

[MikeNewYork]

No. We have a lot of euphemisms for testicles, but I've never heard "plums".

 

[emsr2d2]

Ah, well, then you wouldn't find it funny for that reason then.

WARNING: OFFENSIVE TERMINOLOGY FOLLOWS:

A somewhat crude instruction from a man who wants a sort of foreplay to oral sex: "Get your gums round my plums".

 

[Jill Dorchester]

Is it not used the same way in AmE?

I'm not a male, so I don't know as many slang words for testicles as a guy would, but I've heard them referred to as "grapes" in AmE, not plums. (As in, "Ow! I'll never play baseball without a cup again; that pitch got me right in the grapes!)

 

[Tdol]

Really wrinkly old people are described as "prune-faced." So over the years prunes have been the butt of many jokes, despite being a healthy fruit.

The elderly butler in Sir Henry at Rawlinson's End is known as Scrotum, the wrinkled old retainer.

 

[emsr2d2]

... but I've heard them referred to as "grapes" in AmE, not plums.

Plums are bigger than grapes. Another Br vs Am difference? Just sayin'! ;-)

 

[MikeNewYork]

I have never heard an American man refer to his testicles as grapes. It would be demeaning. The most common would be "balls".

 

[BobK]

Where did French come into it? (I can see your point - I would find plums funnier than prunes!)

I thought the OP might have met French - maybe as a first 'second language' - as France was fairly influential in the Far East.

b

 

[emsr2d2]

I have never heard an American man refer to his testicles as grapes. It would be demeaning. The most common would be "balls".

Is it demeaning if someone refers to themselves in this way? I have always considered demeaning to be something you can be towards another person.

 

[MikeNewYork]

As far as I know, it can be either.

 

[Rover_KE]

I wonder what odilonredon (the OP) has made of the way this thread has evolved.